As government ministers from across the EU prepare to meet to discuss a partial ban on neonicotinoid pesticides, which the bloc's risk assessment body EFSA revealed in January pose an "unacceptable risk to bees" and other insect pollinators, UK politicians and conservation groups have urged Defra Secretary Owen Paterson to stay his hand. The Environment Secretary is set to attempt to derail the proposed measures in talks on Thursday (14th March).

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If passed, the EU plans would ban the use of neonicotinoid preparations on crops attractive to bees for two years, though they would still be available for use on other crops. In January, Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said that an outright ban on the chemicals is not an option.

Talks were originally scheduled for the end of February, but were moved to March at short notice. The meeting of the EU's Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) will now take place on Thursday and Friday this week. Although EFSA recommended a pan-European ban on the three active ingredients named in its risk assessment study, the agency can do no more than make recommendations, which EU legislators must then agree to enforce.

In Europe, a minority of Member states including the UK and Spain are believed to be attempting to block proceedings. On Wednesday, Green Party MPs urged Owen Paterson to back a two-year suspension, which they claimed is the "bare minimum" needed to allow European bee populations time to recover.

MEP Keith Taylor said, "The threat from neonicotinoids cannot be ignored any longer. The UK government should, at the very least, support a two year suspension on the use of these pesticides." In February, Green MEP Martin Häusling censured the Commission for "caving in to the chemical industry" over the postponement of the original SCoFACH meeting.

On Wednesday, campaign group Avaaz announced that a YouGov poll had shown almost three quarters of Britons believe Patterson should support the EU moratorium. 71 percent of those questioned declared support for the measures.

Battle over neonicotinoid findings rages in UK, EU

However, the pesticide industry has backed government ministers who are stalling proceedings; representatives of Bayer and Syngenta, the EU's principal manufacturers of neonicotinoids, claim the EU's proposals are disproportionate and that EFSA's findings are flawed and incomplete. An EFSA spokesperson told the UK Environmental Audit Committee in early February that the agribusinesses claims left him "puzzled," adding that the companies "submitted data packages, which we have evaluated, from the first to the last study."

Although Defra claims it will make an eventual decision on neonicotinoids based on the results of its own field trials, these findings may not be forthcoming. Last month, the Health and Safety Executive officials and Defra scientists informed a committee of MPs investigating the link between pesticides and pollinator decline that field trials demanded by the industry and government due to their validity have effectively stalled, as control bee colonies were found to have been exposed to neonicoitinoid pesticides.

Meanwhile over 30 peer-reviewed studies have established links between the controversial pesticide group and negative health impacts in pollinating insects, resulting in restrictions in Italy, France and Germany.

Critics from the Pesticide Action Network and Friends of the Earth who initially accused the government of 'fence-sitting' over the neonicotinoid issue have stepped up their indictments this year. They now maintain that Defra is actively time-wasting over neonicotinoid regulation.

Commenting on the UK government's National Action Plan on pesticides and events unfolding in the Environmental Audit Committee's inquiry, Friends of the Earth's Paul De Zylva said, "They [Defra] must think we're fools to believe this constitutes active engagement to protect public health and the environment. The real aim seems to be to go as slowly as you can and be as arcane as you can."

In January, an industry-commissioned study suggested neonicoitinoids could be worth as much as £630million each year to UK agriculture. However, researchers from Reading University scientists involved in the EU STEP project on pollinator protection estimate that pollinating insects contribute £1.8 billion each year to farming in the UK alone. Pesticide Action Network researchers also criticised the industry study's methodology when it was published, just one day before the EU watchdog's findings on neonicotinoids.